What to look for in finding a real estate agent?

Question

Hello,

I wanted to know, in your opinion, the criteria of an ideal real estate agent for a first time home buyer? For example, some questions to ask would be “how many homes have you sold in a year”, “what is your marketing strategy to put homes up for sale”, or “how long you been a real estate agent”. All comments are welcome.

Darren Klein · Answer

Hi Tyre,

Referral from friends and family is always a good start.
I would work with only full-time agents.
I think it takes at least 5 years to really learn/become an expert in any industry.

With these guidelines I would interview a few agents, have a few conversations, and whichever one you feel most comfortable with is the right one. 

If you meet the agent and you don’t like him/her then try a different agent.
If you’re not feeling it on the 1st meeting, move on. 
Don’t waste their time and yours if you don’t want to work with them.

But once you make a decision, that agent is going to put a lot of time and effort into helping you without getting paid (until you close).
Stick with them.

Good luck - Darren

Todd Pultz · Answer

@Tyre Carmon it’s more than just transactions! Depends on what you are looking for. If your looking to just sell your own home for top dollar, then find the top agent and the top brokerage and start there. Top agents sell homes for higher and quicker!

However, if your looking for an agent to invest, that’s different. Those same top agents might not be the one! You want an agent that understands investments and that’s simple to figure out quickly. You want a master negotiator! They might not have the most transactions.

I recently got my realtor license only to handle my own stuff, but quickly other investors wanted me to work for them because I’m focused solely on investing and not selling a single family home. Investing experience is lengthy, but day one as a realtor experience showed 0. However, I’m positive I could run circles around some of the top agents because they are not investors or do not understand the multifamily game.

So......depends on what your looking for but this is a good place to get referrals. Best of luck

Nathan Gesner · Answer

I agree with Darren. At least five years experience, I would prefer more than 10 so that I know they made it through the last housing crisis. They should have at least 24 transactions in the past year. After that, I want to make sure we are a personality match and that they listen.

Lydia S. · Answer

@Tyre Carmon

If you’re a buyer, asking a Realtor about their history at marketing homes may not be relevant since some only work with buyers and some only work with sellers.

Are you talking about investing and need someone who does both?  That’s a question to ask if the answer is yes.

Ask if they’ve had to write offers for investors, if they’ve been in multiple offer situations and been able to get their client the property successfully, and ask if they will write low-ball offers (if you’re an investor).

Also ask if they’re on a team and will be handing you off to someone else under them.

If it’s a personal residence you’re after, ask them about first time home buyer programs available in your area.

James Carlson · Answer

Great question. In hot markets like here in Denver and Colorado Springs, I think a good agent can make the difference. (But of course I'd say that in my position.) Here's what I tell our homebuyers' class.

Communication. Buying a house is stressful and likely a process you know little about. Having an agent who communicates with you can help reduce that stress. And by communication, I mean two things:

1. Frequency. They should get back to you quickly. Even if there's no update, they should communicate to you that there's no update yet but they'll touch base when there is. Not hearing from an agent about what's going on with this complicated process is inexcusable.

2. Clarity. Some agents can distill complicated concepts into digestible chunks. Some can't. After talking with your agent, do you understand the process? Or are you still foggy?

You can't ask them if they're a good communicator, you just have to watch for it. Your initial conversations and interviews are a great testing ground for their communication skills. They're on their best behavior during this time, and if they're still not getting back to you and clearly articulating how things work right now, they'll never do it better.

ExperienceThis is probably equally as important as communication. I'm not sure what the threshold is, but somewhere around 20 deals/year sounds right. I remember reading a stat a few years ago that there were roughly 20,000 agents in the Denver metro area but that 15% of those did something like 85% of the deals. You don't want that part-time agent. There's big money to be won and lost here. You want someone who knows all the tools to both get you under contract and get you the best deals -- during the initial offer and during inspection.

Ask them how many deals they did last year. What kind of deals. (If you're investing, you want an agent who invests themselves and has worked with investors.) And how many years they've been doing this.

Negotiating skillsThis is a piggy-back off the above. Again, there's a lot of money at stake. I've dealt with agents that obviously didn't know what they were doing and we got a lot more for our clients than we probably should have. And I've dealt with strong negotiators where it's a battle. You want the battler. (We can talk another day about what I think is the "win-win" fallacy.)

Not sure how to gauge this. I will say that sometimes I get people asking about reducing commissions, and except for the craziest of circumstances, we don't do that, and I always tell people that you can't expect someone to negotiate on your behalf any better than they negotiate on their own behalf. So if you ask them to take a reduced commission and they fold right away, that might be an answer.

Gut feelingThe intangible is important. At the end of the day, you're trusting this agent to guide you through a high-stakes process with money on the line. Do you feel they'll be a good fit to help you do that? If not, don't waste your time.

That's it, I'm off my soapbox. Good luck!

Steve Morris · Answer

Tell them what you want and see what they come back with.

If its a match then they're listening to you.

What to look for in finding a real estate agent?

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